


Meeting of Minds

by SEF



Category: Stargate SG-1
Genre: Action/Adventure, Canon Related, Gen, Gen Fic, POV Female Character, POV First Person, Team
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-06-18
Updated: 2010-06-18
Packaged: 2017-10-10 15:55:09
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,573
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/101491
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SEF/pseuds/SEF
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Sam relates the story of Daniel's return and a mission to meet the Gadmeer.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Meeting of Minds

  


I'd been staring at diagrams of naquadria-powered aircraft for a couple of hours, feeling like some hotshot Stone Age builder who'd just been confronted with her first steel-reinforced skyscraper—complete with elevators, air conditioning, and keyless entry.

I wasn't just out of my league, I was out of my epoch.

"Hi, Sam. Am I interrupting something?"

"Daniel." My friend's return was still so new that my heart melted each time I had an opportunity to say his name. To him. In the flesh. "You're saving me from despair."

"Sam?" I could see he wasn't sure if I was joking.

That tentativeness marked every personal conversation now. Daniel didn't know where he'd been or what he'd done for the last year. That would have driven me mad. But, Daniel being Daniel, he suffered at least as much from the acute awareness that he didn't know how any of _us_ had changed in that time. Maybe in the back of his mind, he worried that something he had done was about to send us all to oblivion, or had already wounded us beyond repair. Like Abydos.

I slipped off my stool and held out my arms. He gave me that little smile of his and stepped into the hug. We held each other for a long, long time. "Kidding, Daniel," I said, rubbing his back. He felt so good. "Everything's fine. I'm just frustrated."

We pulled apart, and his eyelashes were wet behind his glasses. I knew mine were, too.

"I can relate to that," he said.

"The colonel's still not talking?"

He shook his head. "He can't, Sam. I think he just...can't."

I bit back the "Oh, God, men are hopeless" retort that sprang naturally to my lips. For starters, Daniel didn't fall into that category. The colonel very likely did, but there were extenuating circumstances. If I'd had to pull the plug while my closest friend in the world lay dying, I might have had trouble discussing the subject with said friend, too. As for what came later—those hinted-at visions of Daniel while Jack was being tortured to death—that was material for the therapist's couch or the priest's confessional. No one, not even Daniel, could count himself entitled to hear that story.

No matter how much Daniel needed to hear it.

I took Daniel's hand, the one whose palm still bore the faint scar of a terrible radiation burn, and kissed it. I wasn't even aware of what I was doing until it was done, but he didn't pull away. He just blinked at me solemnly. I felt flooded with affection and fierce protectiveness toward him.

"I love you, Sam," Daniel said softly, and I knew he did. This time I wasn't going to waste my chance.

***

Our next briefing was the first one since Daniel's return that felt almost...normal. Like old times.

The dialing program hadn't turned up any viable gate addresses for weeks, so I was curious about what our mission might involve. Apparently the colonel hadn't been clued in, either. He was swiveling back and forth in his chair, excited as a little kid at the prospect of a new mission for the newly reconstituted SG-1. Teal'c sat next to him, stonefaced but radiating contentment on some subliminal level. Daniel and I sat across the table from them, drinking coffee and pretending to be alert and professional.

General Hammond was a few minutes late. When he came in, he was carrying only a lightweight manila folder. He greeted us and took his chair at the head of the table.

"Morning, sir," the colonel said brightly. "What have you got for us?"

"Well, colonel, what I have is a request. Two requests, actually."

"A request?" Judging from Daniel's tone, he didn't like the sound of that any more than I did. If the Tok'ra were still thinking of us as their convenient lab rats, I was in for another heated discussion with Dad.

"Yes," the general said. "At precisely 0500 this morning, we received a GDO transmission. The code was one we assigned to the Enkarans. I ordered that the iris be opened, and as a result we received a short radio message."

"Are the Enkarans in need of assistance?" Teal'c asked.

"No," General Hammond said. "The message was not, in fact, from them. It was from the Gadmeer. They would like to meet with Dr. Jackson."

"_What?_" Three bodies leaned forward, three mouths spoke at once. If the table had been a bit narrower, we would have knocked heads in classic Three Stooges style. Only Teal'c retained his dignity. He was no longer broadcasting satisfaction, however.

"The Gadmeer," General Hammond repeated. "It seems they have successfully resurrected their civilization. They wish to meet the man who made it possible for them to do so and, I quote, 'while safeguarding the principles on which our lives and honor depend.'"

Daniel sank deep into his chair. The colonel's face was blank, wiped of all expression. Despite the unusually fortuitous outcome to our mission on P5S-381, no member of SG-1 remembered that planet fondly. Daniel and Jack's friendship had fractured there. Like one of Daniel's pots, the friendship had eventually been pieced back together, but it could never be restored to its original condition.

Euronda taught us all that Daniel would never compromise his principles, not to advance the SGC's mission and not to assure Earth's safety. But the Enkaran incident illustrated that Daniel wouldn't sacrifice his principles even for _Jack_. Daniel was willing to gamble his life and the colonel's sanity for the sake of a people who, at the time, were nothing more than free electrons in a vast computerized vessel.

I don't say Daniel was wrong. To him, the Gadmeer were alive and their civilization was precious. He'd spent most of his life trying to reconstruct lost worlds from artifacts. With the Gadmeer, he actually succeeded.

I know Daniel bitterly regretted losing the colonel's trust. He often spoke about how much he wished Jack would vent his anger so they could clear the air. I didn't have the heart to explain to Daniel that the colonel wasn't so much angry as hurt. Deeply hurt, I suspect. The colonel's first priority is always us, his people. On P5S-381 he'd learned firsthand just how many things Daniel placed above personal loyalty.

Teal'c broke the uncomfortable silence. "Do not the Gadmeer require a sulfurous environment?"

"Yes," the general said, "but they seem to be well aware of our needs. They've suggested a meeting place that is tolerable for both races in terms of temperature, air pressure, gravity, and the like. Apparently their party will be able to get by with light respirators and heavy clothing. SG-1 won't require any special equipment."

"So we're all going, sir?" I asked.

"We won't allow Dr. Jackson to travel unescorted, of course. However, there is one...wrinkle. The second message."

"Sir?" the colonel asked.

"The second message was received by NORAD at precisely 0600, and was promptly passed along to me. It was from the Asgard. They strongly suggest that we do not agree to the Gadmeers' request."

A long pause followed, during which we all tried to wrap our minds around that development. I was briefly amused by Daniel's stunned expression until I realized that my own mouth was agape as well. I shut it with an audible click.

"Feeling like a leaky sieve here, sir," the colonel said. And people think he's slow!

The general nodded. "Yes, I think we can conclude that the Gadmeers' timing was not coincidence. They likely know of Dr. Jackson's recent return to us. And certainly the Asgard must consider the matter of some importance if they were willing to reveal the extent of their intelligence capabilities simply to warn us about this meeting."

"Um, sir..." Daniel's teeth worried at his lower lip. "Did the Asgard give any explanation for their warning? Anything at all?"

"No, son, they didn't. Nor have they responded to my follow-up message."

The colonel drummed his fingers against the tabletop. "Well, still, it's an easy call, isn't it? Thor and the Asgard are our allies. They know a heck of a lot more than we do. If they think the meeting's dangerous, why should we doubt them?"

"Did they say it _would_ be dangerous?" I asked. I don't think I scored any points for my next evaluation with that question.

"No," General Hammond said. "I've told you their request almost verbatim." He pulled a slip of paper from his folder and quoted: "'Please proceed cautiously. We strongly suggest that you do not meet with the Gadmeer. The Asgard High Council.' End of message."

"Crap." Jack's hands knotted into fists. "Is obscurity some kind of higher-level brain function?" He slid back in his chair and smirked at Daniel and me. "Oh, wait. Stupid question."

I made a face. Daniel, though, took the comment seriously. "No, Jack, it's not a stupid question. We know the Asgard have protected humans for millennia. And Thor certainly has good reason to understand exactly how far we've advanced, or not, in recent years. They wouldn't let us walk into a trap if they could prevent it with a simple explanation. If the Asgard aren't telling us any details, maybe it's because they don't know them, or they're afraid of how we'll react. Like the oracle at Delphi. The Asgard understand the issues relating to the Gadmeer, but they can't predict the outcome of our behavior. Clearly, they want us to interpret their warning for ourselves."

The colonel listened to Daniel's ruminations with a faint smile. Like me, he was probably thinking about how much he'd missed those little lectures. (Or, at least, complaining about them.)

The colonel raised his hand like a schoolchild and spoke to General Hammond. "Sir, I'm thinking the warning means 'head for the hills!'"

"I think so, too, Jack." The general sighed and extracted another paper from his folder. He placed it in front of me. It was a detailed schematic, labeled in English, of one of the Goa'uld components I'd been trying to comprehend for weeks. I was rather humbled to see that it was not, as I had thought, an environmental control mechanism.

"The Gadmeer message included this attachment. And, did I mention, they CC'd the White House?"

The colonel winced, glanced at the paper, then at me. "Is it genuine?"

"As far as I can tell, sir, yes."

"Suiting up now, sir," the colonel said. Upgrading Earth technology was the SGC's main reason for existence. There was no chance the military brass or the politicos would refuse whatever the Gadmeer had on offer. No matter what the Asgard thought.

"I think 0800 on Friday will be fine," the general said. "We all have a great deal of preparation to do before then. Dr. Jackson, we'll need to find out everything we can about the Gadmeer—history, culture, language, technology. Major Carter, I want you to examine the document we've already received and advise me as to exactly what sort of technology we should be negotiating for. Teal'c, I'd like you to contact your Jaffa friends and find out if they know anything about the Gadmeer, past or present. And Colonel, you and I have a lot of thinking to do. Let's adjourn to my office."

"Yes, sir."

We all rose. The colonel and the general, looking grim, departed. I sat down and stared at the schematic.

Daniel pulled up a chair and looked over my shoulder. He touched a finger to the page.

"Get thee behind me, Satan," he murmured.

***

I squirmed a bit on my cushion, trying to get as comfortable as I could in Teal'c's sparsely furnished quarters. Teal'c stopped lighting candles and found me a larger and softer cushion. He's well acquainted with my idiosyncrasies by now. I shoved the second pillow under my tailbone and nodded my thanks.

Teal'c folded himself into a neat package and sat across from me, with no cushioning at all. "It troubles me," he said, "that the Gadmeer have requested a meeting with Daniel Jackson rather than an exchange of emissaries."

"Yes, you'd think if their intelligence is so advanced they'd already know that the colonel isn't _ever_ going to let Daniel go off by himself again."

Teal'c almost smiled. "I look forward to the day when Daniel Jackson discovers that."

"Oh?" I tried the eyebrow-lifting trick that my male companions had perfected. "And whose side do you plan to take?"

"O'Neill's caution is warranted."

"Good." I smiled. "Because you might end up being Daniel's chief bodyguard. The Gadmeer aren't likely to feel too kindly toward the colonel and me. We did do our best to blow them out of existence."

Teal'c inclined his head. "Yet they are a civilized people, and they no doubt have heard an accurate account of events from Lotan. Your motive, to save the Enkaran people, must be found in your favor."

I cupped my hands over a candle flame, letting it warm my fingers. "I hope so, Teal'c. The truth is, I could have lived with the loss of the Gadmeer ship. I couldn't have stood by and watched real Enkarans go up in flames. I wish I'd told the colonel that instead of letting him carry that all by himself."

"He is the commander. Whether you agreed or not, the decision was still his. You could not change that."

"Yes. Well, I'm glad I don't have his job."

"You will someday, Major Carter."

"You think?" There was a time when that was all I wanted. Well, that, and then the general's job, too. Not any more. I've seen too much of what those two men have had to endure. And, as I close in on forty, I've grown to dislike changes that take me away from the people I love. "And what will you do then, Teal'c?"

"SG-1 cannot endure forever in its present form," he said. "Colonel O'Neill has aged under his burden. Daniel Jackson's gifts are too important to risk him offworld with such frequency. And the time is coming when I must return to Chulak and the Jaffa, and play my role in their rebellion against the Goa'uld. You will remain, our legacy to the SGC."

"What if that's not what I want?"

Teal'c frowned. "Fate, or choice, may always intervene. You do not wish to assume O'Neill's place?"

"I don't know. I just want to be Major Carter, SG-1, for as long as I can."

There was a soft knock at Teal'c's door. We both knew who it had to be.

"Come in, Daniel Jackson."

Daniel stepped inside. "Oh, um...am I, uh..."

I patted the cushion next to me. "Sit down, Daniel. We were just talking about the Gadmeer. Have you found out anything more about them?"

He sank down beside me. "No," he sighed. "Nothing. It's as if they never existed. And the Asgard aren't responding to our messages. What I'd really like to do is contact the Enkarans and talk to Lotan, but they don't have a stargate on their home planet. General Hammond has asked the Tok'ra to make a run out there, but it'll be weeks at the earliest before we hear back."

"How did the Gadmeer get their GDO code?" I wondered aloud.

"The general gave it to Lotan in case he needed it on the journey to the Enkaran homeworld."

"And whatever Lotan knows, the Gadmeer know."

Daniel pulled at his ear. "I got the impression that was how Lotan worked, at least initially. Now that he's an individual, living off ship with the Enkarans, I'm hoping he's a lot more than just an interface to a Gadmeer database."

"Can General Hammond not postpone this meeting until we have gathered further intelligence?"

"Um..." Daniel fidgeted with his glasses. "As I understand it, Senator Kinsey asked the president what SG-1 was good for if we aren't up to doing first contacts with small groups of avowedly friendly aliens." He paused. "Or, in this case, second contacts."

"Oh, man." I shuddered. "I don't want to know what the colonel said about that."

"He is a wee bit ticked off."

"I, however, am both angry and concerned." Daniel and I were taken aback by what, for Teal'c, amounted to an emotional outburst.

Daniel was the first to recover. "What concerns you most, Teal'c?"

"The Gadmeer asked for you, Daniel Jackson. They say they honor you, yet they have provided no information that would assure us of your safety. The only information they have provided is that which was designed to coerce your attendance."

Put that way, the whole thing sounded even more sinister.

Typically, though, Daniel wasn't willing to jump to any conclusions. "I know it's odd, but we rarely have any information at all for first contacts, Teal'c. At least we know the Gadmeer went out of their way to find the Enkarans a home. And they did screen their chosen planet carefully. The whole sorry incident was just bad timing on our part."

Bad timing and bad judgment. On all our parts.

"And you are anxious to learn more of this great civilization that has risen from its ashes?"

"Well, yes." Daniel sounded a bit defensive. "That is why I am here, isn't it?"

He was right. I don't know why it sounded so wrong.

***

The gate technician was already counting down chevrons when Daniel and the colonel entered the gateroom.

"But robes are just more practical," Daniel said, plucking at his BDUs. "I know the Air Force doesn't care about comfort, Jack, but for sun protection and temperature control and—"

"Daniel." The colonel cast an eye over Teal'c and me, nodding his approval of our readiness. "Our guys don't wear _dresses_. Do I have to spell out the subtext for you?"

That brought Daniel up short. "Subtext?" he said, drawing out the two syllables. "Who taught you that word?"

"I'll take point," the colonel said to me. "You two flank Daniel. Remember my instructions."

His orders hadn't been complex: Don't split up the group. Don't leave Daniel exposed. Don't leave Daniel alone, ever, for any reason what-so-friggin'-ever. As Teal'c and I were in complete agreement with this plan, the only anticipated fly in the ointment was Daniel himself.

"Jack, you haven't answered my question."

The colonel flashed a smile at Daniel. "_You_ taught me, Glow Boy. Don't you remember?"

Daniel was so flummoxed by that that I don't think he even noticed our unusually protective formation as we stepped through the wormhole.

The ride was, as always, cold, dark, and disorienting. When I emerged on the other side, the colonel was standing a few steps in front of me. He had his back to the gate, but one arm was outstretched to prevent any of us from toppling off the high stone platform that surrounded the stargate. The other arm rested, naturally, on his P-90.

According to the MALP report, the platform was about 25 feet tall, with no readily apparent means of egress. We'd brought our own chain-link ladder, but Teal'c and the colonel had been been practicing "lassoing" the stargate with rope and grappling hooks for the last three days. We'd made too many life-saving dashes for the gate to feel comfortable in a situation where we couldn't just dial 'n' dive.

Once we were all safely on the platform, the colonel and Teal'c went off to lash the ladder to the stanchions that held the gate in place. Daniel and I peered below us.

Planet PSF-899, selected by the Gadmeer, was nearly 80 light years from Earth. The climate near the gate was extremely warm, reaching well over 100 degrees Fahrenheit on a typical afternoon. The landscape reminded me of a long-ago trip to Kilauea's Hawaiian Volcano Observatory. Less than a half-mile from the gate a crack in the earth was venting steam and magmatic gas. On the opposite side of the platform, the ground sloped down into a plateau where basins of green and brown mud bubbled ominously. Sulfur crystals decorated all the surrounding rock, explaining the distinct rotten-egg smell in the air.

The sparse vegetation consisted mostly of tall clumps of purple and green grasses and what appeared to be stunted ferns. There were no trees or flowers and no visible wildlife except for some small brown birds that fluttered amongst the grass. I wondered what they ate.

"The ground temperature is probably too hot for trees, sir," I said over my shoulder to the colonel. "We're atop an old volcanic caldera."

"Hope these guys aren't looking for a virgin to sacrifice," he observed.

Daniel and I rolled our eyes.

"It reminds me of Yellowstone," Daniel said to me. "Not the mountains, of course, but the mud pots. Do you think there are any geysers here?"

"Probably, if there's groundwater."

Teal'c and the colonel joined us.

"Any sign of the Gadmeer?"

"No," Daniel said. "Maybe they're giving us a chance to get down and get settled."

"Right." The colonel waved at me. "Ladies first."

"Thank you, sir." I crossed the platform and started down the ladder. Twenty-five feet isn't a distance you would want to fall, but it isn't high enough to be scary, either. I was a little more concerned about what I'd find at the bottom. I clung to the ladder for a few minutes while I made sure I hadn't landed on unstable ground. I don't care for mud baths, hot or superhot.

"Seems all right," I shouted up.

The colonel followed me down, then Daniel and Teal'c.

"Where to?" the colonel asked.

"Let's check out that steam vent," I suggested. "Until we do a survey, we should stay in the rockiest areas. The UAV didn't spot anything too dangerous in the immediate vicinity, but this ground can't be very stable."

The colonel nodded and let me lead the way.

"This is an odd meeting place," Teal'c said.

"The one thing we do know," Daniel responded, "is that the Gadmeer selected this place for our needs. We find this environment almost unlivably hot and barren, but they're the ones who will need respirators. And apparently this temperature is much colder than the one they're accustomed to. As compromises go, we got the better part of this deal."

We reached the edge of the steam vent. A change in the wind pushed its stinky exhalations toward us, and we made an abrupt about-face.

And then they were there: four Gadmeer, sitting—or were they standing?—in a patch of purple grass and watching us.

My initial reaction was relief. The Gadmeer had taken the trouble to match the size of our own party, which indicated some sensitivity toward the fearfully delicate nature of any first contact. My secondary reaction was a mixture of repulsion and fascination. Most of the civilizations we had encountered were recognizably humanoid. Not these people.

The image of the Gadmeer I'd seen on their ship had been blurred. At the time, it made me think of Felix the Cat crossed with Puff the Magic Dragon. Yet nothing about the real creatures seemed either soft or cartoonish. Their heads were large and boxy, with great triangular faces. Their eyes were black and only black, with no visible iris or pupil. A metallic cone covered each nose and mouth.

It was difficult to see much of their bodies because they were swathed in some sort of heavy black clothing. I couldn't see a single spiked tail, which made me think the appendage wasn't particularly useful to them. Except for their heads, only their forearms were exposed to the air. These arms were streamlined and segmented with at least two "elbows." The arms were protected by an exoskeleton that had smooth, greenish-black hair on the top of the arm but draped over the flesh to fall into a series of barbed hooks. I was reminded uncomfortably of a praying mantis.

Daniel stepped forward and the colonel and I immediately joined him. Daniel dropped down on one knee so that he was at the eye level of the Gadmeer. "Hello," he said. "I'm Daniel Jackson. It's a great pleasure to meet you."

The four Gadmeer lowered their heads, mimicking Daniel, and covered their faces with crossed arms. They held that posture for a good half-minute, after which one of them finally rose and revealed his face. "We honor you, Daniel Jackson. We live because of you."

The artificial voice that emerged from the respirator was clearly a copy of Daniel's own. The colonel sniggered beside me.

"Shut up, Jack," Daniel said under his breath.

"Oh, no," Daniel said to the Gadmeer spokesman. Or spokeswoman. "That was a time of great misunderstanding. You saved your own civilization. We didn't intend to get in the way. We merely wanted to preserve lives."

The Gadmeer's head tilted up and he spread his arms out from his body, a bit of alien body language that was no doubt significant, if baffling.

"This is your clutch?" the artificial Daniel-voice asked.

"Um..."

"Your nestmates?"

"Oh," Daniel said. "Yes. _Clutch_. This is my, uh, team. Our leader, Colonel Jack O'Neill. This is Major Samantha Carter. And this is Teal'c. We have all come to greet you, to learn about your ways, and to tell you ours."

The other Gadmeer stood and extended their elbows.

"I am Emdurl," their apparent leader said. "This is Kivwep, Rasd, and Widlow. Yes, Daniel, we will teach you our ways."

***

We soon discovered that all four Gadmeer had voiceboxes programmed to sound like Daniel. I'm not sure if the choice was intended as a tribute or if the Gadmeer were insensitive to the normal human range of variation. Perhaps our voices all sounded like whale song to them.

After missing Daniel's voice for so long, it was odd to be surrounded by it in quadraphonic sound. I'm sure Daniel found his chorus annoying, but he was far too polite to say so in front of the Gadmeer. The colonel, of course, found endless amusement in the situation.

After some discussion, we learned that the Gadmeer had not materialized from thin air à la Thor. They had arrived at the planet (which the colonel had already dubbed "Mudpot") a half-day before us by flying a small ship through the stargate. They intended to use this ship as their temporary home and a refuge from what they considered Mudpot's chilly, over-oxygenated atmosphere. Their ship was parked directly over a steam vent to maximize heat and sulfur fumes for the occupants.

Thoughtfully, the Gadmeer had set up on our behalf the most luxurious tent I've ever seen. They sited it beneath a sheltering outcrop about a mile from the gate. At fifteen by thirty feet, the bright yellow tent had twice the square footage of my bedroom at home and was equipped with lighting, air conditioning, and running water. The interior was spartan but provided ample room for our sleeping bags and other equipment.

I wondered where exactly I was supposed to change in privacy, but I didn't worry too much about that. It was actually quite fortunate that the Gadmeer had consigned us all to one tent. As a result, the colonel didn't have to make a fuss about keeping the unit together, and Daniel didn't notice anything out of the ordinary.

Since the Gadmeer already had the ability to understand and reproduce English, we quickly stashed our packs and bedrolls and settled down to talk in a relatively flat area about midway between the two camps. At least, we humans "settled." The Gadmeer didn't seem to have a sitting position. Standing or sitting, their legs and arms crooked up at sharp angles as they crouched in the grasses of the sulfur bank. This put their heads at just above our waistlines, so we sat and made ourselves as comfortable as we could in the bleak, sweltering landscape.

The colonel permitted Daniel to begin with his own questions about the history and civilization of the Gadmeer. I think the colonel would have encouraged that in any case, given that the Gadmeer were so obviously enamored of our archaeologist, but I knew there were other reasons as well. Neither the colonel nor General Hammond was happy about the way the Gadmeer summons had dangled technological booty in our faces. I don't think the general wanted the SGC to be seen as responding to that lure, and I'm sure none of us wanted a repeat of Euronda. If the Gadmeer weren't people we could justify doing business with, I for one didn't _want_ to know that they were willing to sell us motherships or ion cannons on the cheap.

Daniel sat on a small hillock of grass, his knees and elbows jutting outward in what must have been a conscious imitation of the Gadmeer. "When we first met your ship," he said, "Lotan told us that your civilization had been attacked and nearly destroyed by a great military power. Can you tell us what happened?"

Emdurl's head bobbed. (At least, I think it was Emdurl.) "Our home planet was destroyed by the ships of our former trading partners. That happened," he hesitated, "approximately 32,000 of your solar years ago."

"Thirty-two _thousand?_" Daniel asked excitedly. "And Lotan said your civilization was about 10,000 years old at that time?"

"Um..." Emdurl said, in uncanny imitation of Daniel. "Kivwep? You can explain better."

Kivwep, it turned out, was the smallest of the four Gadmeer. He shook himself in a fluttery gesture and scooted closer to Daniel. Teal'c slid into a protective position.

"Your language is difficult," Kivwep said. "Imprecise. So many meanings for each word."

"That's certainly true," Daniel agreed. "Which word troubles you?"

Kivwep fluttered again. "History," he said. "It means...the past. The study of the past? That which is gone. The time of only written records."

"How would you like to use the word?" Daniel asked.

"We had...'evolution'? Animal thinking. Then the time of language and consciousness, before writing. 'Mythology'? Then writing and the passing of data from one generation to the next. That is 'history'? About 5,000 years of history then, for us. Then life capture and the eternity of personality, 10,000 years. What do you call that period, Daniel?"

We all leaned forward, wondering what he would say.

"Life capture? Can you tell us what you mean by that?"

Kivwep touched his forearm to Emdurl's head, communicating, perhaps, in some way that was hidden to us.

"You were on our vessel?" Kivwep said. "You saw our people?"

"Oh!" Daniel sat up straighter. "You mean the records that Lotan showed me? Those were captures of individual personalities?"

"Yes," Kivwep said.

"And you had the ability to capture individual lives for ten _thousand_ years?"

Emdurl answered. "Except for accidents, and refusals, every Gadmeer who lived during the ten millennia before our slaughter is still with us."

"My God," Daniel said. "You don't need history books. Or archaeology. You have every historical personage with you. Forever."

"Humans have not yet learned the means of preserving consciousness?" one of the other Gadmeer, Rasd or Widlow, interjected.

"No, no," Daniel said. "That is beyond us. Most of our past is lost."

All four Gadmeer heads bobbed.

"We offer you this gift, Daniel," Emdurl said. "But, we must warn you. We taught this technology to the Asgard. And for that, they destroyed us."

We all froze.

"What the—" The colonel surged to his feet. "The Asgard are our allies. If they came after _you,_ Grasshopper, they must have had a damn good reason!"

"Jack!" Still seated, Daniel reached up to grasp the colonel's arm. "Jack, give them a chance to explain."

The colonel is very fond of the Asgard, especially Thor. And they're very fond of him. He glared down at Daniel. "Daniel, you don't believe for one f—"

"Sit _down,_ Jack. This is a negotiation. We're just talking."

I don't know what the colonel saw in Daniel's face, but he did sit down, begrudgingly.

"Thank you," Daniel said quietly, touching a hand to the colonel's knee. Then he returned his attention to the Gadmeer. "Emdurl, your people seem to know a lot about us. I think you must know that we have an alliance with the Asgard. Why did you wish to meet with us, when we are allied with the people who destroyed your planet?"

"We wished to meet with you, Daniel." I don't think I imagined the slight emphasis on the "you" in that sentence. "Lotan told us how you protected our lives, even though we are not like you. He showed us that you prevented our ship from annihilating Enkaran lives. So we have studied your life. It seems to us that you value the things that we value: life and learning."

"We all worked together to stop the destruction of the Enkarans," Daniel said, including the rest of us with a wave of his hand. "Most of our people value life and learning, though unfortunately not all."

Kivwep spoke up. "Yet you are not like these others, Daniel. You honor more than just today, more than mammal life. Also, you are more learned, and more alone."

I saw the colonel jerk at that last statement.

"No, I, um..." Daniel sputtered. "I'm not...Sam, Sam, help me out here?"

I scooted closer to Daniel. "Kivwep, do you mean that your people are not mammals, or humanoids, like we are? Like the Asgard are?"

"Of course," Kivwep said. "You are like the Asgard. Small family groups, strong loyalties and biases, murderous internecine rivalries. The Gadmeer are not so. The animal kingdoms on our world were very different from your own. But we are more like what you call insects. We have no real gender, with the exception of a few mothers. We are born in large groups of siblings. We do not prey on each other. All are valued."

I looked at Daniel, asking for permission to go on, and he nodded. "So you lived in large groups, like hives or formicaries?"

"Yes," Kivwep said. "Our animal ancestors had a primitive form of hive communication that was chemical in nature. As we evolved, biologically and technologically, we learned to refine and enhance this ability. Eventually, we learned how to record all brain communications in digital form. From there, it was but a short step to preserving memory."

"And this was a technology you exchanged with the Asgard?" Daniel asked.

"We were uncertain if this ability could be transferred to a species so different from our own," Emdurl said. "This was our major concern about the transaction." He clasped his forearms together and lowered his head. "We are sorry. We could not think like mammals. So we did not know the Asgard would use this technology so differently."

"Oh!" It occurred to me what must have happened. "You didn't know that the Asgard would use your life-capture technology in conjunction with cloning."

The Gadmeer heads bobbed.

"We who survived the catastrophe were the frozen eggs of seven clutches," Kivwep explained. "We have always been many, with no desire to clone. Our bodies live a short span, and our consciousness lives on. This is enough for each of us. But the Asgard could not do without their own bodies. They used our life capture to preserve individuals, but not their species! We did not know this would happen."

The colonel scowled. We all knew that the Asgard were, in fact, a dying race. Their cloning technology had reached its biological limits. From the sound of it, the Gadmeer might have facilitated that decline, but surely the Asgard themselves were ultimately responsible.

"And how do the Gadmeer use this technology?" Daniel asked.

"Ah," Kivwep said, clearly pleased by the question. "We use the life capture to preserve each mind and its memories. These are sacred to us. Each of us lives and learns, and passes his learning on to the rest. No experience is lost. No consciousness degrades into compost. You value such things as well?"

"Yes, I do," Daniel said. "I've spent a good part of my life digging through old trash heaps trying to find what we've lost."

"You were lost, Daniel," Emdurl said. "You were far from your clutch. They thought your learning was lost forever. We would not wish this to happen again. That is why we offer you our gift." He reached into the black fabric that covered his abdomen and removed a wandlike metal rod with a bluish cast that suggested the presence of naquada.

"Whoa!" The colonel slapped an arm across Daniel's chest. "Let's not get any ideas here, Danny-boy. No touching the technology."

Daniel hadn't moved. His eyes were on Emdurl. "Is this the device you use to capture lives?" he asked.

"A crude portable version," Emdurl said. "Soon after birth, all Gadmeer are implanted with devices that regularly update our life disks. To record your mind now, Daniel, would take several minutes. But, once done, no experience you have ever had will be lost to you, even if time or trauma has obscured your memories. You will know your childhood again, and your sibling-wife, and the path you have taken for the last year. These will never be lost to you again. And, when you die, your people will continue to benefit from all you have learned."

"But you're only offering this to me? Not to Earth?"

"To you, Daniel. That will be enough. For once you have participated in the process, you will soon determine how to reproduce it. You understand these mammals far better than we do. So we will trust you to decide what to do with it."

***

"Time for a break," the colonel said, after another half-hour of listening to Daniel pry the Gadmeer with questions about their life-capture device. "We'll talk again tomorrow."

"Yes, thank you," Emdurl said, in Daniel's oh-so-polite voice. "Good evening to you."

The Gadmeer remained motionless while the colonel hustled us back to our tent. At that point I think we all would have benefited from a little exercise, but blowing off steam just wasn't practical on a planet that was, well, blowing off steam of its own. Even with Mudpot's sun near the horizon, the temperature was 104 degrees and the sulfur fumes were thick.

The atmosphere inside our bright yellow tent was thick with something else altogether, but at least the temperature was cool. "Oh, thank God!" I stashed my P-90 and went to duck my head beneath the faucet of our nifty little sink. After years of hanging out with these three guys, I'd long since ceased worrying about my hairdo.

Daniel, who had been mumbling to himself all the way back to the tent, headed immediately for his journal. He flopped onto his sleeping bag and began to write furiously. Teal'c took a drink and then volunteered to do the first watch. The colonel unloaded most of his gear (but not his sidearm) and began to pace. I recognized all the signs of imminent explosion.

After several times around the perimeter of the tent, the colonel halted in front of Daniel. "Come on, you don't seriously believe that the Asgard wiped these guys out!"

Daniel looked up from his journal. "I don't know, Jack," he said mildly. "I can't rule it out. Can you?"

The colonel sat down on his own sleeping bag and kneaded his bad knee. "Hell, yes."

Teal'c was stationed just outside the entrance to our tent, so I was the only one who could come to Daniel's assistance. Not that Daniel ever needed any help in a battle of wits, but I preferred a three-way "discussion" to a Jack-Daniel row.

"The timeline is right," I said. "The Gadmeer say they had this life-capture technology in use more than 32,000 years ago. And we know that about 30,000 years ago the Asgard had begun to use cloning even though they were still almost human in appearance."

"Cloning is purely physical, Jack. It requires some separate means to transfer consciousness and memory from one body to another," Daniel said.

The colonel scoffed. "So the Asgard swiped the technology and bombed the Gadmeer out of existence in order to make sure they were the only ones who knew the secret? That's nothing like them. The Asgard have been protecting people in this galaxy for thousands of years."

Daniel closed his journal. "Protecting humanoid races, Jack. I'm as grateful for that as you are. But the Goa'uld and the Replicators must have a different perspective on Asgard benevolence."

"All that shows is that the Gadmeer must be the bad guys."

"Or that the Asgard of thirty thousand years ago had different priorities," Daniel said. "Jack, there isn't a country or a race on Earth that doesn't have blood on its hands. The Asgard have a lot more history than we do. They must have made mistakes."

"It might explain why the Asgard didn't want us to come here," I said. "They wouldn't want us to know what happened to the Gadmeer. And they've always tried to prevent us from acquiring advanced technology."

"Bios on CD? Give me a break. How're we gonna blow ourselves up with that?"

Daniel looked at me. We both knew that what the Gadmeer were offering him could prove Earth-shattering, although not, perhaps, in the sense the colonel meant. I couldn't begin to imagine most of the implications, but Daniel, as a consummate social scientist, probably could.

"It's an evolutionary leap, Jack, on a par with the invention of language and then of writing. Imagine if each generation had access to the full experience of its predecessors, not just whatever a few preeminent people happened to jot down. This technology could preserve everyone, warts and all. For the first time, there would be a complete record of how typical people lived and died. That would dramatically reshape our understanding of ourselves. If we'd had this technology for a few thousand years, archaeologists would know who the tomb builders were, not just the names of the mummies inside them. We'd know what Stonehenge was for. We'd know how the Goa'uld turned our ancient beliefs into a pretext for slavery. The truth, the whole truth, would be available to us."

"So some historians get a lot more to work with. You want to know what they're going to find out? That people are people, in any age."

Daniel warmed to his argument. "Yes, Jack, but the things we believe in and care about change radically. This isn't just a chance to have more records. If I understand the Gadmeer correctly, they're talking about access to complete personalities, a depth of information that we can't replicate today even for a few individuals. For the first time, we could know what it's really like inside another person's mind. I've known you for years, Jack, but even if I sat you down and took a complete personal history—"

"Yeah, right," the colonel sniffed.

"—and even if you answered all my questions fully and accurately, there would still be fundamental things I didn't know about you and couldn't replicate. Skills, feelings, experiences—"

"Do you really want the next crop of grad students to know everything about you? Your first kiss? Your most embarrassing moment? The worst thing you ever did? Sounds like one hell of an invasion of privacy."

"Privacy is a contemporary value itself."

"Yeah, well, I like my values, thank you very much. Not to mention my security rating."

"You wouldn't have to agree to the process, Jack. But think about this: If we'd had this technology for just a few hundred years, Sam could be in the minds of Newton and Einstein while they were figuring out the universe. Artists could decode Leonardo, musicians could hear what Beethoven heard in his deafness. Historians would understand exactly why Hitler, Stalin, and Mao made the choices they did. Not just their rationales, but their innermost thoughts and feelings, their childhood experiences, _everything_. It would change how we look at ourselves in every field of endeavor from spirituality to quantum physics."

The colonel leaned wearily against the wall of the tent and examined us both. "Look, kids, I know you're both excited about the chance to build the latest and greatest of high-tech libraries, but maybe we're not supposed to have all that stuff at our fingertips. Maybe we're supposed to find out for ourselves."

Daniel removed his glasses and pinched at the bridge of his nose. "I know, Jack. I wonder about that, too." He put his glasses back on and smiled at us. "Once we understand the human mind, will we find new mysteries?"

"I wonder if..." Too late, I cut myself off.

"What?" Daniel and the colonel asked in unison.

I cleared my throat. "Well, I have to agree with you, sir, that the Asgard probably wouldn't have destroyed the Gadmeer home planet just to keep some technology to themselves. But what if they did it for another reason...to protect all the human worlds in this galaxy? Even now, the Asgard are determined to protect us from technology we can't handle. And this technology would mean a lot more than just an improvement in our ships and weapons. It would change who we are. Or it could. Don't you think, Daniel?"

"Yes. But the Asgard _aren't_ telling us we should avoid this technology. Maybe that means we're at a point in our development where we have to decide this issue for ourselves."

"Fine," the colonel said. "Then I decide. We're not ready for this life-capture crap. Let's get off this topic and get the Gadmeer to discuss some good old-fashioned weapon arrays."

"But, Jack—"

"_Daniel_."

"Jack, relax, I'm not going to sign up for this without your agreement." I was surprised to hear Daniel make such a huge concession. "What I was going to say is that maybe the Asgard are silent now because they know humanity isn't going to survive against the Goa'uld if we don't take the next evolutionary step."

"You don't know that."

"No, I don't. And I don't like making decisions in ignorance. But, Jack, this is all _about_ gathering more knowledge. Don't you think if we understand more we'll make better decisions?"

"Aw, Daniel." The colonel sounded genuinely disappointed. He shook his head, got up, and went outside to check on Teal'c.

"What?" Daniel asked me. He isn't naive, but his picture of humanity can still be remarkably optimistic. "What did I say?"

I started to unlace my boots. "You'd make better decisions, Daniel, I'm sure you would. I'm just not sure about the rest of us."

***

The next morning the colonel asked me to steer our talks with the Gadmeer toward technology that would, and I quote, "mess with the Goa'uld and not with our minds."

We made the short trek from our comfortable tent to the meeting place of the day before (a "hot spot" if ever there was one). Daniel settled into the purple grass with his arms and legs akimbo in the fashion of our hosts. The posture made him look about ten years old, especially by comparison to Teal'c, who sat at Daniel's right hand looking like a stone Buddha. A sweaty stone Buddha. I took Daniel's left, and the colonel chose to stand behind him.

The first thing we discovered was that the Gadmeer had no firsthand knowledge of the Goa'uld. What they did know had been picked up in the three years since their culture's resurrection on P5S-381. Understandably, their communication and intelligence efforts hadn't yet extended much beyond their obvious interests in Earth and the Asgard. They hadn't known of the Goa'uld menace 32,000 years ago when their home planet was destroyed.

I could see Daniel file away this information with some interest. We'd never known when the Goa'uld first began ravaging our galaxy. Their early appearances on Earth occurred before any writing systems were in place. Now we at least had a baseline.

Daniel delivered a brief (well, fifteen minutes or so; I'm sure the colonel didn't consider that "brief") and animated history of the Goa'uld. Then he cleared his throat. "So, um, Emdurl, you can see why we fear that our planet is in imminent danger of destruction. That's why we are seeking any help we can find. If Earth is destroyed, all our lives, all our learning will be lost forever."

Kivwep waved his arms. "But, Daniel, you can save these minds. We will help you."

Daniel licked his lips. "We appreciate that, Kivwep. We are still discussing whether your life-capture technology is...uh, suited to our people. First, we wonder if you can help us with technology that will help us protect our entire planet from such destruction."

"We could not protect ourselves," Kivwep said, his head bobbing low.

I allowed a moment of respectful silence before interrupting. "Still, your initial message to us demonstrated that you understand some elements of naquada- and naquadria-based technology that are mysteries to us," I explained. "And clearly your ship, with its amazing propulsion and navigation systems, is far beyond our capacity for interstellar travel. Would you be willing to teach us about these technologies?"

"Um..." Emdurl said.

"We don't know enough about you to be certain what we can offer in return," Daniel said. "Perhaps there is something you would like to ask for?"

"Please excuse us," Emdurl said. He touched his forearm to Kivwep's head, and Rasd and Widlow repeated the action. I watched, reminded of the way ants interact on Earth. This must have been the biochemical communication that the Gadmeer had referred to earlier.

The party split up after a half-minute or so. Emdurl shook himself like a wet dog. "Daniel, you alone saved our entire civilization. We ask no payment from you. But Colonel O'Neill and Major Carter tried to destroy us. Will they not succeed if we give them better tools? Are they not the allies of those who annihilated us?"

The colonel grimaced but, to his credit, didn't look away. I did.

Daniel took a deep breath. "Emdurl, my friends were in an impossible situation. We had nowhere to take the Enkarans. We didn't know how to stop your ship. And we are mammals, Emdurl. When others like us are threatened in body and mind, it's very difficult for us to stand by and do nothing. No matter how hard we try to understand, we, um...we don't feel the loss of a life-capture disk in the same way as the loss of a body and mind. I am sorry, but this is true, and you should know it."

The Gadmeer were silent for some time. Emdurl twisted his boxy head far, far to the right, his shiny black eyes taking in the cloudy yellow sky. Finally, he looked back at us. "We are bodies now, Daniel."

"Yes," Daniel said softly. "We don't wish to see you harmed. We would like to come to an agreement with you."

"And if the Asgard attack us again?"

The colonel put a hand on Daniel's shoulder, signaling him not to respond.

"I don't think that's likely," the colonel said. "A lot has changed since 32,000 B.C." Daniel didn't correct the historical error. "Right now the Asgard are protecting Earth the best they can. And we help them out whenever we can. We're allies. So we'll talk to them."

Daniel's eyebrows zoomed up, his way of asking for permission, and the colonel lifted his chin to indicate that Daniel could go on.

"Emdurl," Daniel said, "do you know of any reason why the Asgard would attack you now?"

The Gadmeer leader adjusted the metal respirator that covered the lower third of his face. "They are here, Daniel, watching us for this last hour. Did you not ask them here? Do they intend to destroy us?"

"Oh, no!" Daniel said, shocked, as I was, by the calm of the four Gadmeer in the face of an imminent Asgard threat. "No, no. We didn't know they were here, Emdurl. Please believe me. We have come here in good faith."

"The Asgard? They're here?" the colonel asked. Needless to say, he wasn't at all distressed by that information. He looked skyward, shading his sunglasses with his hand. "Ya gotta love those shields."

"You can detect Asgard ships?" I asked the Gadmeer. Now that was a technology I would love to bargain for.

"It does not help," Kivwep said solemnly. "Except to prepare for death."

The colonel was still surveying the atmosphere. "We've got company," he said, pointing north. I could see a small ship closing rapidly on our position.

Teal'c picked up his staff weapon and stood. "We should take cover, O'Neill."

"Right. Carter—"

The ship dove toward us, its laser cannons firing. The Gadmeer screeched and scattered, their angled legs propelling them across the terrain in huge, graceful arcs.

I tackled Daniel and rolled toward the nearest rock. Teal'c and the colonel dropped into the grass and returned fire.

"Sam!" Daniel protested. "Let go of me!"

"Keep down!" I warned him. "You can't do anything with that Beretta." I put my P-90 to my shoulder and joined the counterattack.

While our attacker circled, Teal'c and the colonel scrambled a few yards away to the minimal protection of another lava outcrop. All three of us fired at the ship on its next pass. The ship's lasers missed us directly but blasted up enough rock to bombard us with fragments of all sizes. Daniel threw himself over me, taking the brunt of the fallout.

I shook him off. "Daniel, stay under cover or I'll—"

He ignored me and pulled me closer. "Sam, look!"

Three of the Gadmeer were returning. They had stripped off most of their heavy clothing, revealing their trim bodies. As they leaped toward us I marveled at their remarkable jumping ability, but a moment later I realized they actually had wings. Using their tails like rudders, they sailed thirty or forty yards across the landscape with each jump. They must have made a dash for their ship because all three Gadmeer were now carrying weapons that looked like scaled-down bazookas.

The attacking ship returned for a third pass, and the Gadmeer fired with us. One of their bazookas hit home. The ship wobbled, sank, and spun off beyond the gate, where I sincerely hoped it made itself one with the magma.

Unfortunately, the ship's crew had time to escape. I heard the distinctive whine of a ring transporter, and a half-dozen heavily armed Jaffa materialized on the plain at the foot of the stargate platform. And now, despite our best intentions, Daniel and I were separated from Teal'c and the colonel.

All three Gadmeer snapped their wings closed and congregated at our hiding place. I no longer had any idea which was which.

"If they kill you, you will die," one of the Daniel-voices said.

Well, yes, that seemed pretty obvious to me.

One of the Gadmeer touched his forearm to the heads of the other two. Those two locked their bristly arms in Daniel's vest and BDUs.

"Hey!" he said. "No, no, what are you doing?"

"Go!" The leader, probably Emdurl, said.

"Stop!" Daniel shouted. "Sam!" He tried to roll away, but he was helplessly entangled in Gadmeer appendages.

"Daniel!" I grabbed for a back leg of one of the kidnappers, succeeded in catching a tail, and was easily shaken off. The two Gadmeer jumped, little hindered by their human knapsack.

"Carter!" the colonel yelled. "Daniel!" He brought up his weapon.

"No! Don't shoot! They have Daniel!"

This, of course, drew a hail of fire from the Jaffa, who were now nearly on top of us. At least one of the fleeing Gadmeer was hit by a staff weapon blast, but both Gadmeer kept jumping. I watched them in dismay, unable to tell if Daniel was dead or alive. I'd lost him again.

"Carter! Your back!"

I swung my P-90 at Emdurl. He made a clicking noise and lifted his bazooka. "We must fight together."

A staff weapon blasted over our heads, emphasizing his point. Emdurl dropped low to the ground and began firing at the Jaffa.

One person can't do battle on two fronts, at least not without compound eyes, so I crouched against the rock and began shooting as well. The Jaffa spread out around us, trying to flank our two positions. The colonel managed to wound one slightly, but all six Jaffa continued to advance.

Suddenly Teal'c yelled something in Goa'uld. Whatever it was, it sent one of the Jaffa running. Teal'c and Emdurl fired almost simultaneously, killing the man. Furious, the remaining five Jaffa turned all their firepower on the colonel and Teal'c's position.

"Aaaah!" Jack was hit. I saw him curl into a ball and drop. Teal'c left cover to grab him and pull him back beneath their protective outcrop.

"We must leave," Emdurl said urgently. He turned the full force of his jet-black eyes on me. "There might be others on the way. There is no safety here."

He had a talent for the obvious. I checked my weapon and wiped an arm across my face. Jesus, it was hot. So far beyond hot that I didn't have a word for it. "Where's Daniel? Where did you take him?"

"He is safe. We must join him."

Another answer that told me nothing. I spotted the tip of a staff weapon, estimated the Jaffa's position, and fired. Not even close. Damn, these guys were good!

"Major Carter!" Teal'c was only about 20 yards away, but it might as well have been 200. The grass and rocks between us offered no cover at all. "O'Neill is injured. We must return to the stargate."

Simultaneous weapons fire from all five Jaffa indicated their opinion of that idea.

"Not without Daniel!" I yelled. I'd already violated the colonel's order never to leave Daniel alone. I surely wasn't going to abandon Daniel on this planet with both the Gadmeer and the Jaffa. Call me crazy, but I knew the colonel would agree. Even if he was dying, we weren't making a rush for the gate platform until there were four of us.

"I will take you to him," Emdurl said, in that voice that was infuriatingly _not_ Daniel. He placed his bazooka at my feet and rose to his full height. He swept one forearm before him, indicating the terrain in front of us. "Fire, please."

I had no idea what he was up to, but I had no reason to object to his request. I picked a slightly new position behind our rock, lifted my head, and blasted.

Emdurl leaped across the gap to Teal'c's position, folded into a small bundle that wasn't much bigger than your average second-grader, and rolled under the rocky overhang. Not knowing what else to do, I continued sporadic fire at the unseen Jaffa. I nearly got one when he broke cover to return fire.

Several long minutes later, Teal'c began firing again. I watched as Emdurl, with the colonel strapped to his back, crawled slowly into the open. The colonel must have been at least three times his weight.

Emdurl jumped, but he didn't get far, perhaps five yards. He was going to need help. I did my best imitation of a rebel yell and started firing like a madwoman. Emdurl jumped again, and this time Teal'c rolled from beneath the outcrop, his staff weapon firing.

Three of the five Jaffa rose and ran toward Teal'c. Nothing but luck, or a miracle, protected him from all the fire that was turned his way. I managed to make good on my opportunity, killing one Jaffa and slightly wounding another. A few seconds later, Teal'c was sharing my rock and Emdurl and the colonel were out of sight.

"Four left, and at least one is wounded," I said. "How's the colonel? Where did Emdurl take him?"

"His leg is badly injured. Emdurl told me the Gadmeer are positioned on the other side of the solfatara field, to the southwest."

I took a moment to drink from my canteen. Doing battle in a field of sulfur fumes gave new meaning to Sherman's dictum that war is hell. "I hope to God we can trust them."

"We cannot. But we have little choice, Major Carter."

"I know." I nodded toward the Jaffa who were stalking us. "What about these guys? Why no reinforcements?"

Teal'c frowned. "I can only assume there are none to be had. Or perhaps the Asgard are engaging any other vessels."

The Asgard! Hell, I'd forgotten all about them when the Jaffa ringed down. If the Asgard were here, why hadn't they zapped us out of danger? "Maybe the Gadmeer were lying about an Asgard ship being in orbit."

Teal'c nodded, noncommittal. "Regardless, we cannot hold this position."

"Any suggestions?"

"We should run _fast_."

I laughed, which was no doubt Teal'c's intention. He was right, though. We were outnumbered. And, if we were going to find Daniel and the colonel, we had to break out. Lacking the heavy armor of the Jaffa, we might have at least a slight chance of staying ahead of them.

"You know the way," I said, "so that puts you on point. Think you can keep us out of the lava?"

"I shall endeavor to do so, Major Carter."

"Great. On three?"

We each took one side of our rock. I counted down, we took a few last shots, and Teal'c peeled off. I was only steps behind him.

It didn't take the Jaffa long to figure out that we'd skipped the box. They were after us in seconds, but not, I think, at full speed. They didn't know the terrain, and no one could doubt it was treacherous. Teal'c and I had studied the UAV reconnaissance, plus I hoped Emdurl had given Teal'c something a little more specific than just "go southwest." So I put my faith in my teammate and ran. If I was going to make a swan dive into a fumarole, by God, it was going to be at full speed.

Tactician that he was, Teal'c headed for the hottest, stinkiest, and foggiest portion of the nearest sulfur vent. With staff weapons kicking up rocks at our feet, I was more than willing to tolerate some hellfire for the sake of virtual invisibility. The problem was, I couldn't see the ground beneath my own feet and I kept stumbling, falling, and picking myself up. The glassy volcanic rock cut my knees and hands into bloody shreds. The sulfur fumes, which were tolerable in diluted form and for short periods, were enervating at this pace. I couldn't drag in enough oxygen to keep going.

I ran into Teal'c's back. "Teal'c," I gasped, "I need air."

He put an arm around me and we both sank to the ground. "Major Carter," he said. "I am sorry. There is no way for us to cross."

I coughed and peered ahead. The rocky vent tapered off here into a low valley. After the trip we had just taken, it looked like God's country to me.

Then I looked again. The earth ahead of us burped. Burped _mud_, steaming-hot mud. The valley was full of it.

We were dead.

I took the luxury of a couple slow, deep breaths, figuring there wasn't much point in hurrying. Then I chastised myself for being defeatist. That might be acceptable inside my own head, but I was the commander now. I was supposed to thrive on worst-case scenarios.

I patted Teal'c's shoulder. "I think I prefer shooting Jaffa to hopping mud puddles. You up for it?"

He inclined his head. I had the ridiculous notion that he was proud of me. "Indeed."

We could hear the four Jaffa picking their way down the rocky slope, only a minute or two behind us. I lowered my voice. "You go right, I'll go left. Don't fire until you see the whites of their eyes." Was that John Paul Jones? I never could remember.

"Yes, Major Carter," Teal'c said, and we each rolled into position.

A few moments later I saw the head and shoulders of the point man emerge from the rocks. Teal'c—may I never be his enemy—fired his staff weapon at a position well behind the Jaffa. The men ducked and ran toward us. I had to roll out of the way of the point man, who lunged past me and straight into the mud. I ignored his screams as he went down. That wasn't a death I would wish on anyone.

The other three Jaffa dropped onto their bellies and began to return fire.

None of us had any cover. We were shooting at such close range that my P-90 actually gave me an advantage over the Jaffas' more powerful but unwieldy staff weapons. I took out another Jaffa with nothing more than a scorch mark on my backside to show for it. Teal'c headed for higher ground as soon as he could and jumped from the rocky steam vent onto one of the remaining two Jaffa. They tumbled down the slope wrestling for their lives.

Where was the last Jaffa? I scrambled to my feet only to be knocked immediately to the ground by a stunning blow to my back. A staff weapon blast passed inches over my head. I flattened myself to the earth and watched, horrified, as my opponent was lifted off his feet by something black and winged. One of the Gadmeer! The Jaffa kicked and shouted and did his best to angle his staff weapon up for a shot, which is when a second Gadmeer came swooping in and bisected the weapon. Together the two Gadmeer lifted the Jaffa and flung him into the mud pots to join his leader.

I got up and rushed toward Teal'c, who had his enemy in a chokehold. I couldn't fire without endangering my friend, but it was clear to me that the end was near. In a few seconds the Jaffa dropped lifeless to the ground. Teal'c staggered and fell next to him.

"Teal'c!" I dropped to my knees beside him and began to search his body for injuries. "Where are you hit?"

He winced and grasped my hand. "I have not been shot, Major Carter," he said. "Our struggle ventured too close to the mud."

"Oh, God!" We were both so filthy that I hadn't even noticed that Teal'c's lower legs were covered in thick mud.

One of the Gadmeer landed beside me, his wings snapping shut. "We must leave, Major Carter. A much larger ship approaches. We can fly you to our ship."

"Is that where you've taken Daniel and the colonel?"

"Yes, there. I will take you now and then return. It will require both of us to fly Teal'c."

"Take Teal'c first. He's badly burned."

Teal'c gripped my arm. "No, Major Carter, you must not remain here alone."

"That's an order, Teal'c." I signaled the two Gadmeer to move in. "I want you to look out for the colonel and Daniel. I'm in no danger here right now. I'll just sit down and wait for my ride."

Apparently the Gadmeer didn't care much for our chain of command. One of them locked his multijointed arms in the back of my vest. "Hey! Put me down!" I tried to push away and succeeded only in tangling myself more deeply in the Gadmeer's barbed exoskeleton. His wings snapped open from his thorax. Close up, the wings were as thick and beautiful as leaded glass windows. I hoped they were also a whole lot stronger.

"Stop! That's an order!"

The Gadmeer's thin but powerful back legs flexed, and we skyrocketed upward. A moment later we stopped on a bit of solid ground, but only for a moment. The Gadmeer leaped again. Five jumps later, he finally released me on a hillside spotted with leathery ferns on the other side of the valley. He pointed toward the sun.

"Head that direction," he said. "Our ship is about five kilometers away. We will return for you if we can."

He headed back toward Teal'c. "Take care of my people!" I shouted after him. I didn't even know which one he was, though judging from his bossiness he was probably Emdurl.

My team was still in deep doo-doo. The colonel, Teal'c, and at least one of the Gadmeer were seriously wounded. Daniel's condition was unknown. We were getting farther and farther from the gate, our enemies were calling in reinforcements, we were at the mercy of a strange people we barely knew, and the Asgard, if they were indeed present, were doing absolutely nothing to help.

On the up side, though, there were no command decisions to be made at that moment. All I had to do was walk. So that's what I did.

Normally I can jog five kilometers without even breaking a sweat, but not in 100+ degrees on the down side of an adrenaline surge. I pushed on, my eyes searching the ground ahead for danger while images of my three missing team members swirled in my head. How was I going to keep them safe and get them home? Even if the Gadmeer were willing, they surely didn't have the ability to provide medical assistance or transportation for humanoids.

I didn't spot the brown and dun carapace of the Gadmeer ship until I was nearly upon it. It squatted peacefully beneath the crest of a low hill. A metal gangway extended from a small entry that was open and leaking tendrils of the ship's atmosphere into the outdoors.

Some instinct made me slow my steps and approach cautiously. I pulled out my binoculars and surveyed the site.

Teal'c and the colonel were lying in the purple grass about twenty yards from the ship. Daniel and two of the Gadmeer bent over them solicitously. The wounded Gadmeer, I presumed, was aboard the ship with the fourth member of their party.

As I watched, one of the Gadmeer lifted the colonel's legs. I could see that his uniform was soaked in blood.

Daniel stood. "No!" His voice echoed down the hillside. The Gadmeer who held the colonel's legs began to haul him toward the ship. "Stop!" Daniel yelled, and he grabbed for the colonel's shoulders. The Gadmeer who had been attending Teal'c rose and encircled Daniel in his wiry arms.

Daniel fought back, throwing his elbows, kicking, and using his weight to pull his captor to the ground. But he couldn't break free. "_Jack! Jack! _"

I dropped my binoculars and broke into a run.

The Gadmeer dragged the colonel to the ship's gangway, where he sprawled on his back, loose-limbed and unconscious, half in and half out of the ship. The head of another Gadmeer appeared just inside the entryway. He removed his respirator and grasped the colonel's injured leg in his prickly forearms.

"Kivwep, stop! Stop! Stop! Please, oh, God, _please_ stop!" I've never heard Daniel so panicked, not in all our travels together.

A few yards closer, and I understood his horror. The metal gangplank reflected the harsh midday sun, clearly illuminating the scene.

I don't know why I had expected that the Gadmeer respirators covered a nose and mouth like ours. Kivwep had no nose, no lips. Instead, he had two pairs of mandibles, the chopping, crushing, pincer-jaws of a grasshopper.

And he was using them to eat the colonel's leg.

I brought up my P-90 and fired a burst over the ship. "Let him go!"

The Gadmeer who had dragged the colonel to the gangplank leaped for his bazooka, and I shot him with no hesitation. He tumbled down the slope, and I turned my weapon on the Gadmeer who was holding Daniel. "Let him go _now_."

Daniel burst free and dashed for the colonel. He snatched up the bazooka that was lying in the grass. "Kivwep!" he said. "Stop now or I'll blow your head off!" He would have done it, too.

"Kivwep!" the Gadmeer facing my P-90 said. "Retreat!"

Kivwep immediately put down the colonel's leg and retreated back into the ship.

"Jack!" Daniel fell to his knees at the base of the gangplank, his weapon forgotten, and pulled the colonel into his arms. The colonel's head lolled sideways. "Sam, I need help!"

"Major Carter." The Gadmeer under my weapon spoke quietly. "Major Carter, I am Emdurl. You do not understand. Kivwep was debriding your leader's wound. You must allow him now to bind the wound, or Colonel O'Neill will slowly bleed to death."

"What?" I was having trouble believing in rational talk from a cannibal. I wiped my free hand across my chin. "How stupid do you think I am?"

He didn't have any response for that, thankfully. I risked a quick glance over Emdurl's head to see how Teal'c was doing. He lifted a hand, which told me he was conscious but seriously debilitated. He must have been in terrible pain.

"Sam!" Daniel said. "We've got to get them out of here."

Yes, but how?

"Teal'c seems to have great healing abilities," Emdurl said. "But not your colonel. He is dying."

"You," I said to Emdurl. "_Walk_ over there." I tipped my head toward the colonel and Daniel. "Jump, and I'll shoot you before you're airborne."

Emdurl obeyed. He stood beside Daniel, who was lightly patting the colonel's face. The outside of the colonel's thigh was a bloody mess, but the charred flesh normally left by a staff wound was notably absent.

"Daniel," Emdurl said. "Daniel, we do not wish to harm you or your clutch. We must bind Colonel O'Neill's leg."

Daniel looked up. The left side of his face was torn and bloody. "What have you done?" he moaned. "Why have you done this?"

"Daniel, we can spin a bandage. But to do so, we must remove our respirators. Please allow Kivwep to demonstrate."

Kivwep's head peeped through the entryway and it was all I could do to keep my fingers off the trigger of my P-90. He was working something in his mandibles, but I couldn't tell what it was.

"I will show you," Emdurl said. He slowly extended one arm, watching to make sure I didn't misinterpret his action. Kivwep emerged a little farther from the ship and began to wrap a sticky white thread around Emdurl's middle arm. I grimaced when I saw that the thread was extruding from Kivwep's abdomen.

"Ugh," Daniel and I chorused.

"Touch it," Emdurl said, holding out his arm. I don't think I would have done so even if I hadn't been preoccupied with keeping the Gadmeer in my sights. Daniel, needless to say, hardly thought twice. He reached out and pulled at the threads. I could see they were both strong and pliable.

"We will not hurt him," Emdurl promised.

Daniel looked at me. "I think we have to try it," he said. I nodded reluctantly.

Daniel lowered the colonel and moved him closer to Kivwep. I couldn't watch while Kivwep spun a cocoon around the raw wound on the colonel's thigh: it was just too gruesome. I'd never been particularly afraid of spiders, but I found I was quickly developing a new horror of being spun into one of their webs.

While I focused on Emdurl, however, Daniel lay on the gangway, observing the process closely and holding the colonel's leg. Thank God the colonel wasn't awake to witness what was happening to him. I might have nightmares about it later, but at least they'd be from my perspective rather than from his.

When Kivwep was done, the colonel's upper leg was completely encased in a neat, dry package. Daniel gently lowered the leg.

"Can you move the colonel over by Teal'c?" I asked. Daniel nodded.

Emdurl, who had been quiet throughout the spinning, spoke up. "I must go inside our vessel. Kivwep needs assistance, and I require warm clothes and better air."

I didn't see any point in retaining him further, so I stepped back. Emdurl scuttled up the gangway and I helped Daniel lift the colonel. We stumbled over to the spot where Teal'c lay suffering in silence.

The entry to the Gadmeer ship clanged shut.

Teal'c lay still, his fingers clenching the grass, and I touched a hand to his shoulder. "How are you doing?" I asked.

"I shall recover," he said stiffly. "I regret I am unable to assist you."

"We're going to be fine," I assured him. I kicked myself, and the colonel too, for letting us leave our packs in that comfortable tent of ours. Now I had nothing with which to treat Teal'c's burns, not even an analgesic.

I slipped next to Daniel and touched a hand to the matted hair over his temple. "What happened to you? Are you injured?"

He lifted a hand to his head, confused for a moment by my question. "Oh, no, just a rough landing. Widlow died from that first staff blast, Sam."

"Were you unconscious afterward?" I lifted his chin and took a look at his pupils. They seemed even.

"Just for a bit," he said vaguely. "I'm fine, Sam. Jack's not."

I knew he was right, but I didn't have a clue what to do about it. The colonel needed blood, morphine, antibiotics, and a nice, safe bed. I didn't have any of those on offer.

"What's your take on the Gadmeer?" I asked.

Daniel looked embarrassed. He bit down on his lower lip. "I shouldn't have lost it," he said. "I think they were trying to help."

"Anytime an alien starts eating me, you have my permission to lose your cool," I said. "God knows, I did." I'd shot one of the Gadmeer. Damn. What if he hadn't been going for his weapon? Or what if that's exactly what he was doing, but he was just protecting his team?

Daniel squeezed my arm. He always knew what I was thinking. "You had no choice, Sam. You were the only one of us who was armed and conscious."

I sniffed with what I hoped Daniel would take for disdain. "What happened to your sidearm?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I didn't have it when I came to."

I wondered if the Gadmeer had disarmed Daniel, or if he'd lost the Beretta in the fall. Knowing the answer to that question would have told me a lot about their trustworthiness.

The colonel moaned. He tried to twist onto his side.

"Hey, Jack! Easy." Daniel pressed a hand to the colonel's chest.

The colonel opened his eyes and reached up to grab Daniel's arm. "Oh, Jesus, that hurts!"

"Nope, not Jesus," Daniel said, smiling. "Just resurrected."

"Crap, Daniel, this is no time for stupid jokes!"

"Sir," I said, "there's always room for Jello and time for stupid jokes. You should know that."

He cranked his head toward me. "Carter," he said. "Very funny. Now, report."

"You and Teal'c are wounded, but we're all together. Teal'c and I took out the Jaffa. The Gadmeer say there's another ship on the way, but no sign of it yet."

"Where are we?"

"Roughly seven or eight kilometers southwest of the gate, sir."

Metal shrieked, and the little gangway extended from the Gadmeer ship. One of the Gadmeer emerged, swaddled again in the heavy black clothing that all the Gadmeer had worn before the battle with the Jaffa. He approached us cautiously, bobbed low, and covered his head with his forearms. "Kivwep is dead," he said. "He was too long without the respirator."

The colonel tried to sit up, and Daniel drew him closer. I angled my weapon discreetly forward and made sure I was between Teal'c and the Gadmeer.

"Oh, Emdurl," Daniel said. "I'm so sorry. We didn't know...Kivwep sacrificed himself for us?"

Emdurl ignored Daniel's apology. "The second vessel approaches in twenty of your minutes. My wings are damaged by the cold. I cannot return any of you to the stargate."

"No, no, you have to go home," Daniel said, and I nodded my agreement. No doubt we were both out of line, but the colonel didn't yet understand our situation. He raised an eyebrow, but didn't contradict Daniel or me.

"But you cannot fly in our ship, Daniel. Too hot. No oxygen. You like your bodies."

"I understand," Daniel said. "We're very sorry for everything's that happened, Emdurl. And very grateful. Take your ship and go back through the gate. I hope we will meet again under better circumstances."

"You could leave us your weapons," I suggested shamelessly. Hell, this was my team, and if we'd screwed up it was my fault. That didn't mean I wasn't going to fight for every possible advantage. "Once you're through the gate, will you radio the SGC from your end and tell them our situation? They'll send a rescue party. We'll be all right until then if we stick together."

Emdurl thought this over. He handed me his bazooka and then returned to the ship and came back with two more. I gave one to Daniel and one to Teal'c.

Teal'c took his readily. Daniel put his on the ground, where the colonel reached out to rest a hand on the barrel.

"Emdurl," Daniel said, "please go. You don't have much time."

Emdurl covered his face and bowed. "I shall go." He rose up onto his haunches and dug into his pocket. "Your friend does not have much time, Daniel. You can save him with this." He handed Daniel the wand that created the life-capture disks.

The colonel sat up abruptly, the top of his head knocking against Daniel's chin. "No," he said. "Daniel, I mean it, no!"

Daniel took the wand.

"Press the device to your friend's body and push the button. When the light goes out, the process is complete. If he survives, no harm is done. If he dies, his mind lives on."

"God damn it, Daniel! You touch me with that thing and I'll shoot you myself!"

Emdurl turned and walked back to his ship. I followed him, knowing the words between Daniel and the colonel were just beginning. There would be time for me to weigh in with an opinion or even a command decision. But I knew perfectly well that neither Daniel nor the colonel would be directed by me on a matter so vital to both of them.

I stopped at the ship's entry, lowered my head, and crossed my arms over my face. "I'm very sorry I shot Rasd," I said. "I thought he was going to kill my friends."

Emdurl's head twisted away from me. He shook himself. "Then you did right," he said. "For your friends can die forever."

My eyes welled with tears. In minutes, we might all be dead. "Good luck," I said. "Thank you for your help."

Emdurl nodded in a humanlike way. He reached into his pocket again and handed me a package about the size and weight of a hardback book. "Keep this," he said. "Daniel might want it." I accepted the package and tucked it inside my vest while Emdurl crawled into his ship. He pulled the gangplank up after him, and the ship's engines kicked on.

I backed away. The Gadmeer ship lifted, hovered for a moment, and then turned and headed straight for the stargate.

I trudged back to my team.

Daniel had removed his vest and folded it under the colonel's feet. The colonel had one pale arm thrown over his eyes, as if he had a headache. The position made it easy for me to see how shallow his breathing was. Teal'c, on the other hand, had pushed himself up on his elbows and was looking a bit stronger, though it was clear to me that his pain was still significant.

Daniel leaned over the colonel in urgent conversation. "This isn't just about _us,_ Jack. It's about future generations. No one has to return to dust now. Nothing has to be lost."

"No," the colonel said. I had the feeling he'd been repeating that word for quite a while.

"Jack, if this technology had been around fifty years ago, I'd have a chance to know, really know, who my parents were. What they dreamed, what they knew, what they loved. I want to pass on what I've learned, too, when it's finally safe to tell. And you can give that ability to the whole world."

The colonel's arm lifted for a moment and he met Daniel's eyes. "Too late to get them back," he said, bluntly but not unkindly.

"I know! But the next time someone from the SGC walks through the gate and doesn't come back, we can keep their hearts and minds alive. Their families won't have to lose them."

The colonel made a strangling noise.

"Daniel, stow it!" I said. "We've got four people to keep alive here, and I plan to do it the old-fashioned way."

Daniel shot me a betrayed look, which I ignored. "We aren't going anywhere," I went on, "so we'll have to dig in here and build what camouflage we can."

"Go, Carter," the colonel murmured.

Teal'c sat up. "I can dig, Major Carter. Have you any implements?"

I shook my head. "Hands and knives only." I gave Teal'c my knife and he began to make a trench in the gap between his body and the colonel's.

"Carter—"

"You need to conserve energy, sir. Just stay here and supervise Teal'c. Daniel and I are going to do a quick perimeter search. Back in five."

Daniel reluctantly followed me up the hill. I reached for my binoculars, realized they were gone, and shrugged. I shaded my eyes and searched the surrounding landscape for something, anything that might hide us. I couldn't spot even an itsy-bitsy shrub. Apparently Mudpot's flora just didn't grow any bigger than a potted fern.

"What do you expect me to do, Sam?"

I knew what Daniel was asking, but the colonel is not the only one who can play dumb. "Gather up as many of those ferns as you can and place them around the colonel and Teal'c. They won't be much cover, but we might fool any aerial reconnaissance."

Daniel huffed his impatience with me, but he didn't argue. We both started pulling up ferns. When our radios crackled into life, we slid hurriedly back toward the colonel and Teal'c. Teal'c was making good progress on his shallow furrow.

"SG-1, this is General Hammond." What a comforting voice. "We've received a distress call from the Gadmeer. What is your situation?"

The colonel signaled me to respond. "Sir, this is Major Carter. We were attacked by Jaffa. We've brought down one ship and six men. The colonel and Teal'c are in urgent need of medical attention. The Gadmeer have escaped the planet, but we are separated from the gate by approximately seven clicks and a valley full of volcanic mud. According to the Gadmeer, another enemy ship is due in minutes, but we can't confirm that. We are digging in."

"Roger that, Major, we're sending a rescue team now." Thank God!

"Make sure they've studied the UAV data on the terrain, sir. I don't know how they're going to get to our position."

"We'll find a way, Major. Keep your heads down. We'll be in touch."

"Yes, sir." I signed off.

One look at Daniel's face, and my relief evaporated. Daniel had already realized the truth. No SG team could reach us within the hour even if we didn't come under attack. The general couldn't send in heavy equipment, not with a 25-foot drop all around the gate. And the colonel wasn't going to last long enough for our rescuers to bypass the valley and haul him up that flimsy ladder. Blood was still seeping from beneath his tightly wrapped bandage.

Our eyes locked. "I won't let him die," Daniel said quietly. "I won't, Sam."

As if I didn't know that. "Then dig," I said. "If Emdurl's right, we're going to have company very soon."

I took my own advice and began digging. A few minutes later we were all scrunched into a four-foot trench, with Daniel and I flanking the colonel. We piled ferns around ourselves in an attempt to look like part of the landscape. Fortunately, all four of us were now 100 percent dirt-colored. Unfortunately, any Jaffa with a nose could have zeroed in on us. We stank of sweat and blood.

It didn't take a medical expert to see that the colonel was fading. His skin was clammy and cold despite the ambient temperature. I reached over to feel for his pulse. It was rapid.

Daniel had one arm under the colonel's neck and the other slung across his chest. He didn't ask me about the colonel's pulse; he already knew that shock was setting in. "Jack," he said, "please let me try. _Please_."

"No."

"Why? Because Jack O'Neill won't take life any way but his way?"

The colonel managed a grin. "You got it."

Annoyed, Daniel leaned in even closer, his forehead almost touching the colonel's nose. "So it won't be what you're used to, Jack, not at first. But it's just a matter of years before we master human cloning. And someday we'll be able to create robots like Reese. Put that together with the life-capture technology, and you can live, really _live_, just the way you like, complete with new knees. Would you say no to that?"

"Yep."

I suppose I should have interfered at that point, told Daniel to leave the colonel in peace, but what good would that have done? There was nothing left to do except talk. The colonel would rather go out arguing with Daniel than doing most anything else. I was sure of that much.

"Daniel Jackson," Teal'c said. "You—"

"No, Teal'c, I'm sorry, but just shut up and let me say this!" It was a measure of Daniel's desperation that he was so rude to an injured friend. His fingers twisted in the colonel's T-shirt. "You have a lot more left to do, damn you! We need you. You don't get to give up!"

The colonel looked Daniel squarely in the eye. "We've had this conversation before."

"And you _lived_. Abydos lived." Daniel faltered and his eyes brimmed with unshed tears. Abydos was no more. "Those years mattered," he insisted.

The colonel lowered his arm to cover Daniel's hand with his own. "Yeah," he said gruffly. "Don't mean that time, Danny. I mean...Ba'al. When you were...you know."

"But I don't know, Jack. I don't know what happened."

"You wanted me to...ascend." I think the colonel wanted to say more, but he was running out of breath.

"And you wouldn't?" Daniel asked. "You'd rather die than change?"

The colonel didn't like that. His eyes narrowed. "Everybody dies."

"Jack, without this technology, Thor would have died millennia ago. Do you think that would have been for the best?"

Let me just say, I'm glad my debate team never went head to head with the likes of Daniel.

The colonel looked uncharacteristically confused. "No. I don't know." He shook his head. "But Thor does. And the Asgard don't want us to do this."

"We don't know that. This is our choice. Would you expect anyone else in the world to say no, Jack? Anyone?"

The colonel took several quick breaths. "_Billions,_" he wheezed.

He was right about that. The man who held the secret of the life-capture technology would be mobbed by everyone who was in danger of losing a child, a parent, a lover, a friend. Not to mention every man or woman on Earth who wanted a chance to try again.

Daniel was not deterred. "We'll find a way."

The colonel sighed and closed his eyes. His head rolled slightly on Daniel's arm.

"Colonel O'Neill!" Teal'c said. There was no response.

I was afraid the colonel was never going to open his eyes again, but a moment later he was strong enough to speak. His fingers squeezed Daniel's arm.

"You want to be the one who has to choose?"

The tears finally overflowed Daniel's eyes and dropped down his cheek, mingling with his sweat. "If I can choose you. _Yes_."

The colonel's tender smile made me turn away, overwhelmed. Teal'c wrapped his arms around me and closed his eyes.

"It won't be rundown colonels who've fucked up their lives, Daniel. You know that." The colonel gasped for air. "It'll be Kinsey. The president. Sam. You."

I shuddered at this scenario, knowing it was all too likely to be true, and buried my head in Teal'c's shoulder.

"No," Daniel said. "No, it's my choice."

"No—" The colonel coughed, a horrible sound. A death rattle.

"Jack," Daniel cried. "Jack, _please_."

"Mine. My choice. My life. If you care...anything..."

"Care?_ Care?_" Daniel choked on a sob. "I love you, you stupid son of a bitch. We all do."

"Show me," the colonel whispered.

I heard Daniel drag in a deep breath and hold it. Seconds ticked by without sound.

Finally Daniel spoke. "Fine," he grated.

Uh oh. I pushed out of Teal'c's arms, rolled over, and reached across the colonel to grab Daniel. "Daniel, stay put! That's an order!"

"I'm following Jack's order, Sam." Daniel removed my hand, carefully extracted his arm from beneath the colonel's head, and crawled out of our pitiful little shelter.

"Daniel, get down!"

He smiled at me and scrambled down the hillside toward the valley. I tried to rise to go after him, but Teal'c hauled me back.

"Let him proceed," Teal'c said. "He must."

I moaned my disapproval.

Daniel pulled the Gadmeer device from his BDUs and hefted its weight in his hand. He drew his arm back and tossed the wand far, far out into the mud pots. It spun end over end and plopped into one of the larger cauldrons. Naturally, given the weight of the naquada, the wand vanished from sight almost immediately. I didn't think there was much chance it would ever again see the light of day.

Daniel clasped his throwing arm to his side and turned to look back at us, his posture alone telegraphing his grief and misery.

Then there was a flash of light and Daniel, too, disappeared.

  


"Wha—" Another flash, and the colonel, Teal'c, and I were transported out of our foxhole. Somehow we made a soft landing on our backs on a cold metal floor.

Stunned, I looked up to see Daniel bending over us. "Help!" he said, though I couldn't see anyone who might come to our assistance. "We need medical help _now!_"

A moment later, Asgard flooded the room. I don't think I've ever seen so many of them in one place.

A light hand touched my shoulder. "Major Carter, please let us attend to your friends." I reluctantly released my hold on the colonel and Teal'c and sat up. Daniel gave me his hand and pulled me to my feet. The two of us waved away the offered attentions of the Asgard medics and just leaned against each other, arms intertwined, waiting for a verdict.

Several Asgard passed their hands over Teal'c's burns as well as the colonel's chest and wounded leg. Their palms held jewel-like devices similar to the healing technology used by the Tok'ra.

Teal'c endured the treatment stoically. The colonel groaned, a welcome sound because it proved he was still alive.

Another Asgard entered the chamber. His bearing more than his appearance told me he was Thor. He conferred briefly with the medics and then turned to Daniel and me. "Colonel O'Neill and Teal'c will recover," he assured us. "I regret our late arrival."

"Late?" Daniel fumed. "What the hell have you been doing all this time?"

Thor blinked. "We have been in transit, Dr. Jackson, since the moment we discovered that the Goa'uld had sent a task force after you. You were fortunate that so few Jaffa were within striking distance of this system."

Daniel removed his mud-spattered glasses and wiped them on his equally muddy T-shirt. "The Gadmeer told us you've been in orbit for the last couple hours."

"That is incorrect."

Daniel rammed on his glasses. "They're dead," he said. "Three of the four Gadmeer are dead because you didn't intervene. What makes_us_ so special? Fur and mammary glands?"

"Daniel." I lay an admonitory hand on his arm. Truthfully, though, I was glad of his fury. It mitigated some of my own pent-up anger.

"The Gadmeer told us that you destroyed their world," I explained to Thor.

Thor was, as always, inscrutable. "Ah," he said, considering. He waved a hand. "Ah. I begin to understand. Please excuse me for a moment." He called over one of his compatriots, and they spoke quietly. They walked over to a wall panel and appeared to consult with a computer there.

Daniel obviously wasn't interested in listening in, and I wouldn't have understood a word in any case. Instead, we stepped over to check on the colonel and Teal'c, who had been shifted atop two low, uncomfortable-looking pallets that projected from the ship's wall. The Asgard who seemed to be in charge of the medical effort said, "They must sleep now. You need not be concerned."

I think we both wanted to touch the colonel and Teal'c just to reassure ourselves that they were healthy, but of course we didn't want to wake either man. So Daniel and I just stood there, watching our friends breathe. I began to realize just how exhausted and battered Daniel and I were, and how filthy and smelly. We were huge, hairy beasts snorting in the Asgards' pristine living room.

"Dr. Jackson, Major Carter," Thor said. "May I speak with you privately?"

Daniel's mouth tightened.

I was no more in the mood for apologies than Daniel was. "We'd like to get the colonel and Teal'c home," I said.

Thor's head dipped. "Of course. A brief conversation only."

Thor led us into a small side room with two chairs that had obviously been provided for the super-sized humans. We didn't sit. I think Daniel was just too miffed. I was afraid I wouldn't be able to get back up.

"What is it, Thor?" I asked.

"Major Carter, our alliance with the Tauri is one that we value. That is why you must understand that the Gadmeer were mistaken. The vessel they believed to be Asgard was in fact the small Goa'uld ship that attacked your summit. No doubt the technological changes wrought by 32 millennia confused the Gadmeer. The Goa'uld have stolen much that was once the exclusive domain of the Asgard."

"And your ship was the enemy the Gadmeer thought to be on the way?"

"Exactly so."

That didn't seem right to me, but Daniel was the one who put his finger on the problem. "Then why didn't the Gadmeer realize their mistake when the Jaffa attacked us? Technology is one thing. You aren't trying to say they can't tell the difference between the two peoples?"

"Dr. Jackson, the Gadmeer believed they died fighting the Asgard."

"What?" Daniel gaped at Thor. "You mean...Oh. The Gadmeer never knew the Goa'uld, that's true. How would they know if a mammal was hosting a parasite?"

"Yes," Thor said. "The Gadmeer were once our friends, at a time when the Asgard appeared very much like humans."

Daniel scrubbed a hand through his hair. "Are you saying you weren't responsible for the destruction of their world?" he asked. "It was someone else?"

Thor reached for his left shoulder and massaged the muscles there with his long fingers. Headache, I diagnosed. "No," he said, and I heard deep emotion in the voice that was normally so calm and controlled. "The people who destroyed the Gadmeer world _were_Asgard. Asgard hosts."

"My God." Daniel fumbled for one of the chairs and sat. "We didn't know the Goa'uld had ever enslaved your people."

Thor sighed. "The Asgard and the Gadmeer were trading partners long before the Goa'uld were known to us. The life-capture technology was essential to our cloning program. Like the Gadmeer, we Asgard wished to preserve life and enhance knowledge in all ways possible. We did not realize the dangers of doing so."

"You mean the physical decline caused by centuries of cloning?" I asked.

"No, Major Carter, that was a much longer-term threat. We did not recognize the more immediate danger."

"The Goa'uld," Daniel said. His mind was leaping ahead of my frazzled brain. "You gave them the technology. You made them possible!"

"We are uncertain how the first transaction occurred, Dr. Jackson. One of our people may have offered it to a Goa'uld. Or perhaps a Goa'uld seized it by enslaving an Asgard host who had already used the life-capture device. We did not fear the Goa'uld then; they were new to us and their symbiosis with the Unas seemed just another variation in the great diversity of life in this galaxy."

Daniel looked heartsick at this revelation. Our protective allies had themselves created the Goa'uld monsters. Reverence for "life and learning" had betrayed the Gadmeer and the Asgard. And Daniel.

I tried to find some consolation for Thor. "The Gadmeer didn't understand how mammals would use the device. They were surprised by your combination of the life-capture disks with cloning. And you couldn't predict how a parasitic reptile would use it, so you didn't know you had to keep the technology secret. Was that when the Goa'uld began to use naquada in their own bodies?"

"Yes," Thor said. "Their biochemistry was quite conducive to that alteration. They learned how to _merge_ the captured knowledge from one generation of Goa'uld to the next. Genetic memory, artificially enhanced to an incredible degree."

"A thousand Hitlers," Daniel murmured.

"And a thousand Einsteins, a thousand Tolstoys," Thor said. "Remember that. Each Goa'uld gained the memories of its host as well as its Goa'uld predecessors. That is how they came to know so much of early Asgard history and technology.

"The Goa'uld recognized the power of the life-capture device almost immediately. Most of our people could not fathom the enslavement of a single Asgard host, much less the destruction of an entire people, by a race of small reptiles we had scarcely heard of. We were taken completely by surprise."

"Not as much as the Gadmeer were," Daniel said.

Thor lowered his head, acknowledging the truth of that statement. "The Gadmeer are fanatical on the subject of preserving knowledge and personality. It is a sort of religion with them, a sacrament they must share with other sentient species. That is no doubt why the Goa'uld could not allow them to exist."

I cleared my throat. "Are you saying that mammals aren't at a permanent evolutionary disadvantage? That we could use the life-capture technology as the Goa'uld do?"

"Perhaps. The Asgard have not chosen to follow that path. Physically, we have become a different race from the people we were 32,000 years ago. But mentally, spiritually, we are still...individuals. Changed, indeed, because we have lived so long. But still Asgard."

"And you don't want us to make your mistakes," Daniel said. The corner of his mouth lifted. I knew what he was thinking: the colonel was going to be insufferable once he found out he'd been right, at least in Thor's eyes.

"We have hopes for your people. That you will exceed us."

"By keeping us away from the dangerous toys?" I asked. "Doesn't that put us in the position of children?"

"Forgive me. You are not children. Merely...younger. Since we Asgard cannot transmit our knowledge as the Goa'uld do, we must find other ways. If you wish to receive it."

"We do," I said. At any rate, General Hammond's bosses at the Pentagon certainly did. I wasn't sure what I wanted.

"We hope, in exchange, that Dr. Jackson and SG-1 will act as our emissaries to the new Gadmeer world. The Asgard have much to explain before we can repair our friendship with our old allies."

I put my hand on Daniel's shoulder. "What do you think?"

"I don't think the Gadmeer have any reason to trust us, either."

"You are mistaken, Dr. Jackson. The Gadmeer do not fear death of the body as you and I do. They would not wish you to suffer guilt or grief on their behalf. Indeed, they would not understand such suffering, for you have given them the kind of immortality they most cherish. Many of their heirs will wish to visit and learn from the minds of the Gadmeer who met and fought with SG-1 today."

"They saved our lives," I said. "They died for us."

"Even better, for no one is so honored as a Gadmeer who has saved a life—that is, a mind. Or, if you prefer, a soul." I think Thor meant to be comforting, but his characteristic sincerity sounded blasé. Three Gadmeer were dead, and I'd killed one of them myself.

Daniel rubbed his temples with both hands, and I remembered then that his concussion had gone untreated. "All right," he said wearily. "Whatever you want, Thor. I'd like to see Emdurl again. So thank you for healing Jack and Teal'c, and for telling us the truth. And, now, if you'll excuse me, I really need to get out of here." He stood up with careful control, made a sharp turn, and left the room. I had a good idea where he was headed.

"Daniel can never stay angry for long."

But I could. I'm pretty sure Thor made the inference.

"You are disappointed in us," Thor observed. "Yet you have long known that we are not gods."

"Yes, well, we might not be children," I said with a tight smile, "but we're not all that mature, either."

Thor made a rumbling noise that could have signified either amusement or disapproval. He touched my ragged sleeve. "No doubt you and your people have noticed our admiration for Colonel O'Neill," he said.

I nodded, wondering what that was supposed to mean. That the Asgard were demonstrably fond of overgrown adolescents?

Thor went on. "He has represented to us the people we once were, and perhaps should have remained. Men of courage, action, honor, and loyalty. You, Major Carter, you and Dr. Jackson, we thought of as our own prototypes. Intellectuals and dreamers.

"In this, too, we were mistaken."

I was silent, not certain whether I'd been complimented or insulted, and far too tired to sort it out.

"Now, Major Carter, please join your friends, and I will send you home immediately."

"Oh, thank you." I bumbled my way to the door.

I turned back. "Thor, there is one thing I'd like to know. Could the Gadmeer make a life-capture disk without the person knowing about it?"

If Thor had had an eyebrow, he would have raised it. "Only if the subject was unconscious. In that case he would not recover his memories until he employed the reader." He paused, and then said something that restored all my faith in him. "No doubt the Gadmeer would happily share the reader technology with you."

"The Asgard wouldn't prevent that?"

"These are decisions you must make, Major Carter."

"A youngster like me?"

"We admire your teammates, Major Carter. You love them. In such matters, that is a far better qualification."

I wanted to ask if love was something that had altered when the Asgard altered their bodies, but I didn't have the courage.

I should have asked if revisiting the presence of a loved one could ever assuage the loss, but I didn't think of that question until much later.

***

I did a hasty debrief with General Hammond before my physical, though we didn't begin to cover all the issues. I made him aware that the Gadmeer were going to need protecting from the Goa'uld, at least for a while, and that the Gadmeer would very likely be willing to trade technology with Earth in exchange for some badly needed historical knowledge. (Especially if that knowledge was delivered in the form of Dr. Daniel Jackson.) We discussed our new intel on the Asgard but deferred most of that discussion for later in the week. I tried to explain the life-capture technology and all the problems it presented, but it was obvious to both of us that my brain and my mouth were no longer working in sync. The general dismissed me and sent me off to see Janet.

Janet claimed I had one of the most impressive collections of bruises, burns, and lacerations that she'd ever seen. She threatened to take pictures for some trauma physicians' journal. Since that still made me the healthiest member of SG-1, I wasn't complaining.

After my shower I sat in the locker room alone for a good half hour, just decompressing. Only then did I open the package Emdurl had given me. It was, as I knew it had to be, a crystalline life-capture disk. Although technically it might have belonged to any of my three colleagues, I never doubted it was Daniel's. I suspected that the whole purpose of our meeting was to give the Gadmeer a chance to endow their savior with the immortality they felt he deserved. How difficult it must have been for Emdurl to surrender that disk to me.

That left me with one of the thorniest command decisions I'd ever confronted. The disk was a fact now. Add a simple piece of Gadmeer technology, and it would give Daniel the opportunity to relive his times with the wife and parents he had lost. If the Gadmeer were correct, it would also restore his memories of the last year. And, of course, it would mean that, in some sense, we wouldn't ever have to lose Daniel again.

The disk, however, and the new horizons it opened, would also make Daniel a primary target of the NID and an endless list of desperate people. It would confront him with moral and intellectual dilemmas that might dog him for the rest of his physical life. And it might worsen, not ease, the sorrows he kept locked inside.

I knew I could simply hand that decision over to the colonel or the general. I could let Daniel decide if he wanted to read the disk. I could confide in Teal'c, who had my absolute trust, and know that any advice he gave me would be both valuable and eternally private. I could have done any of those things, but what I decided to do was wait.

My next stop was the infirmary, where the colonel and Teal'c were sleeping off the effects of the Asgard medical treatment. They both appeared to be fine. Daniel had been allowed a brief shower (honestly, I don't know how anyone could have prevented it) and confined to bed for observation of his head injury. Like me, he should have been too fatigued to keep his eyes open, but sleep isn't always easy in the immediate aftermath of a mission.

Janet had wisely stashed all three injured men in one corner of the infirmary. She let me pull up a chair beside Daniel's bed. The two of us held hands, watched the colonel and Teal'c sleep, and rambled through a disjointed conversation that would have made any observer certain we were both concussed.

"Whole generations lost, Sam." Daniel shook his head, lamenting. "Whole generations! What kind of scholar am I?"

Screw the life-capture device. The notes, reports, drawings, papers, translations, and theories in Daniel's files were going to fuel hundreds of thousands of doctoral dissertations someday. I sniffed. "Generations will call you blessed," I assured him loftily.

He chuckled.

"Besides," I said. "I'm pretty sure Thor told me you're not a scholar. You're a man of action. So am I."

He squeezed my hand. "Damn straight."

The colonel snored loudly, and we both laughed.

Janet came in to check on her patients. "I've got an airman waiting to take you home," she told me pointedly.

"Just a few more minutes," I said. I nearly added "Mom," but I didn't have a death wish.

Janet frowned at me, but didn't insist.

Daniel was tiring. His eyes were closed, but his grip on my hand told me he was still awake. "This's the last thing I remember," he mumbled. He opened his eyes and smiled sleepily at me. "Lying in the infirmary. You and Teal'c saying good-bye."

"Oh, Daniel." My eyes filled with tears. "The colonel was here. When you were unconscious, he was...I don't know. _Communicating_with you somehow."

"Wish...could remember."

My heart felt heavy in my chest. I left my chair and perched on the narrow bed beside Daniel. "What do you want to know the most?" I asked.

He didn't have to think about his answer. "If I left Sha're behind," he said. "If we were together. If I left her there alone."

The colonel rolled over to face us. "She's not there, Daniel," he said.

"Jack!" Daniel sat up a little too quickly and fell back on his pillow with a grimace.

"Welcome back, sir." The colonel looked great. There was color in his face again. He moved as if he'd never been injured.

I got up to find a second pillow and pushed it beneath Daniel's head. Daniel thanked me, but his thoughts were elsewhere. "I told you that, Jack? That Sha're wasn't with the ascended ones?"

The colonel had a pained expression. I don't think he would have been so embarrassed by Daniel's question if I hadn't been there. Tough. I wasn't going anywhere. I sat down in my chair and smiled sweetly at him.

The colonel pushed up on his elbows and glared at me. When I didn't budge, he cleared his throat and pretended I wasn't there. "Uh...not exactly," he told Daniel. "But you, uh, would have. Told me. I mean, if she were there. I know."

Daniel was certainly wide awake now. "How do you know that, Jack? Exactly?"

The colonel grumbled, but he ground out an explanation. "Ba'al was killing me, Daniel. I know Sha're wasn't ascended because, one, you damn well would have told me what was on offer. And because, two, you were there alone. Got it?"

Oh, hell. I wished then I had left. The last thing I needed to hear was that not even ascension was going to restore the colonel's son or Daniel's beloved wife.

"Got it," Daniel said softly. "Sha're wasn't with me." He sounded almost relieved.

"And for your information..." The colonel shook off his sheets and hopped out of bed. He leaned over Daniel. "For your information, Glow Boy, I did tell you good-bye. Hell, I even said I admired you!"

Daniel's mouth opened, shut, opened again. "You _admire_ me?" he sniped.

The colonel looked affronted. "Hey, I was just trying to tell you that you changed us. Made us, you know...rethink. Wise up. Get with that meaning of life stuff."

"You know, Jack, that's a hell of a lot of subtext to expect a dying man to pick up."

He shrugged. "I knew you could do it."

Daniel ground his teeth. "Jack, you were dying in a ditch and I told you I loved you. We all loved you."

I'm absolutely certain Daniel's use of the past tense was deliberate.

"See?" The colonel jabbed a finger at Daniel. "And now you're sorry. That's exactly my point. You also called me a stupid son of a bitch, as I recall."

"You know, Jack, it's not actually subtext if you _say it out loud._"

"For _cryin'_ out loud, I get it!"

I snorted. A loud, wet, disdainful snort.

Those brown eyes snapped at me. "Carter? You got something to contribute?"

I didn't say anything. Daniel didn't say anything. Then I heard a giggle. It was me. Or Daniel. I'm not certain because almost immediately it was both of us.

The colonel crossed his arms and watched us with mock indignation. "Yeah, yeah, laugh at my manly ways. I can take it."

Janet drew back the curtain that separated us from the rest of the infirmary. "_What _is going on in here?"

I stood up. "The colonel's awake," I said innocently. "So I'll just be heading on home." I bent to kiss Daniel's forehead.

"I admire you, Sam," he said with great solemnity and an irrepressible twinkle in his eye.

"I admire you, too, Daniel," I said, patting his cheek.

Janet was already shooing the colonel back into bed, which is always good sport. I watched long enough to witness the colonel's trademark move for entering a hospital bed without losing his dignity. I paused at Teal'c's bed and touched his shoulder, but he was blissfully unaware of the craziness around him, caught in the deep sleep that he had learned since losing his symbiote.

I flagged down my driver, who was malingering by the nurses' station.

"Carter!" The colonel called me back. "Nice work this time out. You're gonna make a hell of a general someday."

A general. Not a physicist, an advisor, a teacher. Hey, why not? I was Major Sam Carter, SG-1, man of action.

I grinned at the colonel. "Don't make it soon, OK, sir?"

He didn't need any explanation for the subtext on that one. "Do my best, Sam. Do my best."

  


  



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